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The stars and the state: astronomy, astrology, and the politics of natural knowledge in early medieval Japan

THE STARS AND THE STATE:
ASTRONOMY, ASTROLOGY, AND THE POLITICS OF NATURAL KNOWLEDGE
IN EARLY MEDIEVAL JAPAN
by
Kristina Mairi Buhrman
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(HISTORY)
August 2012
Copyright 2012 Kristina Mairi Buhrman

This dissertation examines the social factors involved in the practices of observational astrology (Ch. tianwen, Jp. tenmon) and calendrical astronomy (Ch. lifa, Jp. rekiho) at the Japanese court. The production and monopolization of astrological and astronomical knowledge had, from the time of the Han Dynasty in China, been part of the state bureaucracy and one of the signs of legitimate rule. In the seventh century, Japan too had imported and implemented these state sciences of the Chinese-style imperium. ❧ However, by the twelfth century, while state control of astronomical knowledge continued to operate at a surface level, within the Japanese court bureaucracy dissent and debate reigned. A number of lineages and factions cooperated or competed over astronomical and astrological facts, which resulted in a situation where there was no unified ""truth"" about the stars accepted by the majority of elite members of the court. The political fragmentation and factionalism that characterized the early medieval Japanese state was also to be found in knowledge about the natural world circulating at court. ❧ The major reason for this fragmentation of knowledge was the diversity of the population that produced this same knowledge, a population that did not share either a common identity or definition of practice. Astrological and astronomical knowledge was no longer produced solely by the technical bureaucrats whose offices had been established in the eighth-century Chinese-style law codes (Jp. ritsuryo)--instead, these officials contested with other legitimate but non-official purveyors of natural knowledge: Buddhist monks and court scholars and mathematicians prominent among them. Furthermore, the statements of fact produced by all three of these factions were subject to critique and revision by members of the top echelon of the court bureaucracy, the elite nobility. Clearly there were no independent professional fields of astrology or astronomy in late classical or early medieval Japan. ❧ As a result, specialists of astrology and astronomy employed a number of strategies to ensure a receptive audience for their work, at least among some members of the court. Many entered into client-patron relationships with the top level of the nobility, wherein knowledge and technical skill were traded for economic and social rewards. Two groups in particular, the members of the Bureau of Onmyo (Jp. Onmyo-ryo) and Buddhist monks, cultivated an aura of supernatural power and ritual efficacy. While the primary goal of this strategy might not have been debates over the stars at court, the use of this capital is clearly documented in the historical sources. Therefore, the social history of debates about astrology and astronomy in the Heian (794-1192) court provides valuable insight into the rise and social perception of the onmyoji, a group of specialists in divination, exorcism, and apotropaic ritual who loom large in the Japanese cultural imagination. ❧ In examining the social history of astrology and astronomy in Japan late classical and early medieval periods--how debates first arose then came to shape the very practices of astrology and astronomy themselves--this dissertation also demonstrates the vitality and political importance of these fields in the eighth through thirteenth centuries. In contrast to previous scholarship on the history of science in pre-modern Japan, this dissertation shows that astrology and astronomy were hardly stagnant during this period. It becomes clear, therefore, that the pursuit of natural knowledge in Japan, while it did not develop along expected Western or Chinese trajectories, was still an active part of the intellectual world in pre-modern Japan. Pre-modern Japan's ""failure"" to follow either of these paths was not in fact stagnation or devolution, but a separate trajectory shaped by the political and social realities of the early medieval period.

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THE STARS AND THE STATE:
ASTRONOMY, ASTROLOGY, AND THE POLITICS OF NATURAL KNOWLEDGE
IN EARLY MEDIEVAL JAPAN
by
Kristina Mairi Buhrman
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(HISTORY)
August 2012
Copyright 2012 Kristina Mairi Buhrman